From Attitudes to Actions: Bridging Conservation Planning Framework, Theory of Planned Behaviour and Social Values to Protect Charismatic Freshwater Fishes, the Mahseer

Mahseers are a group of iconic freshwater fishes native to the waterbodies of South, East, and South-East Asia, with significant ecological, socio-cultural, and livelihood value. The complexity of the socio-ecological contexts in which the mahseer conservation occurs demand an approach integrating behavioural dimensions of the individuals and groups directly or indirectly involved in it and social and cultural values they hold for these fishes with the conservation planning and implementation processes for better results. This study examined different facets of the mahseer conservation across three environmentally, geographically, and socio-culturally distinct Indian states - Karnataka, Assam, and Uttarakhand under a framework integrating Conservation Planning Framework (CPF) with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Social Values (SV). Across all the focal states, three key themes were constructed - consensus between stakeholders, communication and collaboration, and values and moral responsibility. Our analyses revealed that while shared ecological concerns offered an opportunity for the collective conservation actions, inter-stakeholder conflicts, communication gaps, hesitation to collaborate, top-down governance, and restricted decision-making autonomy available to tribal and local communities acted as the barriers. Stakeholders from all three states demonstrated strong pro-conservation attitudes, moral responsibility, perceived capability to implement the conservation plans and culturally embedded value for mahseer, rooted in religious beliefs, tribal and local identities and recreational traditions. However, on ground analysis revealed a low actual behavioural control amongst many stakeholders limiting translation of the positive elements present in their attitudes and values into tangible conservation outcomes. Our observations emphasise formalising community-based co-management, strengthening inter-departmental coordination, building conservation capacity, adopting socio-culturally grounded communication strategies and repositioning community fishing events as socio-ecological heritage to ensure stakeholder compliance of the existing mahseer conservation plans and improve its success. Furthermore, aligning conservation planning with behavioural drivers and social values could offer more vital insights for formulating inclusive strategies and policies for protecting mahseers and managing their habitats.